Cotton picker



Sept. 18, 192s.

P. H. WHITE COTTON PICKER Filed April 5, 1926 INSULATION Patented Sept. 18, 1928.

PAUL. H. WHITE, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

COTTON PICKER.

Application led April 5, i926. Serial No. 99,919.

of seed cotton from the boll less arduous and more rapid and to lessen the expense as compared with the process of picking` y hand.

The device of my invention is a manuallydirected gathering or picking head which is intended for connection to the frame of a land vehicle in the form of a wangen or truck and it is a further object of my invention to provide a device of this character whichshall cause a minimum of fatigue to the operator. `With this end in view the device is so constructed as not to become clogged or entangled with the lint of the seed cotton. By reason of the absence of twisted and entangled fibers the product is in much better condition than that picited by hand. It isunderstood that the Adevice must be manually directed for the reason that the'cotton must be gathered selectively from the bells., which do not all ri pen atthe same time.

Mechanical devices for' gathering cotton have heretofore been suggested but usually Vthey were provided with rotating vbristle y brushes to which the cotton adhered strongly causing it to become wrapped about the brushes thus clogging the pielringdevices and delaying the gathering; operation. According` to my invention such delay is avoided by substituting' for the bristle brushes a resilient flexible roller consisting of thin flexible disks or disk-like bodies mounted upon adiacent shafts simulating a gin saw assembly. rlhis arrangement has been found to work very readily and to require very little power.

It has been proposed to overcome the tendency of the cotton to stick to the bristle brushes by rotating' the brushes at high speed with the idea that centrifugal force would create a dofhng eiiect but this expedient has had only limited success. In my device encessive speeds of the rotatingmeans are avoided and the cotton is fed as'nearly as may be in a straight line tangentially of the gatheringl devices which are so constructed as to have no tendency to cling` to the cotton'. Only such speed of rotation is required as will accelerate the cotton to approximately synchronize its speed with the speed of the air stream and the picking` devices, the speed being, of course, made as high as practicable to increase its capacity for the gathering of t Le cotton. To produce the air stream an :rhaust air system of any desirable character is provided on the vehicle to which the picking heads are i connected.

IV ith these| and incidental objects inview, the invention consists in certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, the essential elements of which are set forth in the appended claims7 and a preferred form of one embodiment of which is hereinafter described with reference to the drawings which accompany and form part of these specifications.

Referring' to the accompanying drawings which are made a part hereof and on which similar reference characters indicatey similar parts, f

Fig. 1 is a perspective of a machine using my improved picking; head,

Fig. 2. side elevation of a picking head,

Fig'. 3 a cross section of the head, and

Fig. 4i,v a diagrammatic view of gearing for driving' parts in the head.

In the drawings reference character 10 indicates vehicle of any conventional or desirable type said vehicle being provided with a cape or receptacle 11 of any convenient variety? here shown as having side walls of wire mesh fabric. Outside of the cage a fan casinp; 12 is mounted on the vehicle, the fan in said casing' drawing air through a pipe 13 and forcingi it into the cage through an outlet pipe 14;. l

The pipe 18 has branches 14 terminating in flexible tubes 15 ofsufticient length to permit the pickers 16 carried thereby to be manipulated close to the ground and'at all sides of the cotton plants. Arms 17 are pivoted on supports 18 at the top of the cage and springs 19 each connected at one end to an arm y17 and at the otherto a fined arm 20 tend to raise the tubes 15high enough to keep the pickers off the Laground, and to counterbalance the weight of the parts.

@ne of the pickers is shown in detail in 2 and consists of a tube of metal which may be in several sections and in which the section 21 is freely rotatable relatively to the remainder of the tube for convenience in manipulation of the picker. The forward end of the picker has an openingj as indicated at 22, for entrance of a current of air and a lateral opening through which project flexible disks 23 and rigid disks 2li. These disks are mounted on rotary parts supported by a lil-shaped rod 27 extending; through the front end of the casing. In the present instance a removable (Sli bar 28 extends across the front of the casing and provides a support for the U-shaped rod 27 thus providing for convenient removal of the rotors, as for repair or replacement, by pulling out the rod and removing the bar. At the rear end of the rotors the ends of the rod extend into a support 29 lixed to or formed inteffral with the tube 1G, this part being relativeyhcavier than the other walls of the tube to provide a proper bearing for a jointed shaft 3() housed and journaled in a tube 3l extending along the tube 16 and connected at,

its rearfend to an electric motor 32.

The motor 32 is provided with a pair of contacts 33 and 34 and a circuit-closer 35 is slidably mounted on the tube lat the opposite side from the motor. The contacts are separated from the tube by insulation indicated at 36 and the circuit-closer is shown in a positionwhcrethe circuit is open but it will be obvious that when the circuit-closer is moved a little further to the. left in Fig. 2 it Will close the circuit and start the motor, it being anelectric switch.

The two rotors comprise frusto-conical end members 37 and intermediate disks 38 of any suitable hard substance, such as vulcanized rubber. These parts serve as spacers for thin rigid disks 24 and thin flexible disks 2,3 arranged in alternation on the rotors,the parts just described being fastened rigidly together in suitable manner. i Y

Each of the rotors is provided at one end with a gear 41 between which are arranged pinions 42 and 43, one of which is on the shaft 30. As the rotors are driven by the motor the disks will grasp the tufts of cotton on the open bolls and draw them from the boll, the rigid disks serving to steady the movement of the flexible disks and providing a more posi- A tive gripping action for the cotton, and as rotating guards for excluding burrs, twigs, etc.

It will be understood that any suitable number of units each comprising a picker and the supporting means therefor may be j mounted'on a vehicle preferably along the sides thereof though some may be located at the back. A sufficientnumber should be provided so that the workers can gather the cotton from a number of rows at each side of the vehicle at one trip through the field.

It will be understood that the number and arrangement of laminated flexible resilient disks on a head may be varied at will asmay also the number of rotors. In Athe operation of the device it is desirable to drive the rotors at suflicient peripheral speed to cause the flexible disks to spin out erect in planes normal to the axis of rotation. Being thin and flexible these disks cany readily move out of their normal path to permit tufts of cotton with the seed carried thereby to pass readily between themv andbetween adjacent rotors or bet-Ween the rotors and the wall of the casing. In their operation the rotating disks will enter the crevices or the boll or burr and draw the fibers of the cotton away from the boll and as thesefibers also tend to follow one another the boll will quickly be emptied. ,The i friction of the smooth disks is suicient for this purpose, .although the edge of the disks may be roughened. Air is drawn through the head between and around the disks to some extent but mainly through the front opening at 22 where the suction creates a. draft such as will. serve to pick up the cotton it passes from the rollers. The cottonand the seed having been accelerated substantially to the speed of the air current are readily ejected from the pic-king rollersinto the air current as thereis no adhesion of the fiber to the disks.

l/Vhen the cotton passes from the disks they at once right themselves and can assume the form of rotating disks which are approximately true flat disks, all without damage to the cotton or the seed or the disks themselves.

It will be obvious to those skilled in theart that various changes may be made in my device'without departing from the spirit of the invention and while the form of vmechanism herein shown and described is adapted to fulfill the. objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that it is not intended to confine the invention to the one form of embodimentshown, as 1t is capable of embodiment in various forms all coming within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus fully described my said invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure eral edges in overlapping engagement with the peripheral edges of the said rigid disks on the other shaft, means for rotating the said parallel shafts in` opposite directions, and means for creating a suction through the spaces between said disks, substantially as set forth. j

2. A cotton picking device comprising a hollow casing, parallel shafts mounted to rotate within said casing, a plurality of thin flexible disks on each shaft, a plurality of relatively non-flexible disks anounted on each shaft between the first named disks, and positioned so that the peripheral edgeof, each flexible disk on one shaft will have overlapping engagement with the peripheral edge of the non-flexible disk on the other shaft, 'and means for creating a suction through Vthe spaces around said shafts and disks, substantially as set forth. Y j

3. A cotton picking device comprising a head member, a pair of parallel shafts rotatably mounted within said head member, means for rotating said shafts, a plurality of relatively non-flexible disks mounted upon each of said shafts and having the peripheral edges of those on one shaft in overlapping engagement with the peripheral edge, a plurality of relatively flexible disks on the other shaft, an opening in said head adjacent said disks, and means for creating a suction through said opening, substantiallyl as set forth. p

4. In a cotton picking device comprising a head and means for creating a suction through said head, a pair of rotatable shafts one of which has thin relatively non-flexible disks mounted thereon, the other of which has a. plurality of flexible disksspaced thereon and mounted so that the peripheral edges of the flexible disks will have overlapping engagement with the peripheral edges of the non-fiexible disks, means for rotating said shafts in opposite directions whereby the cotton -may be drawn into the head of the picker and delivered into the path of the suc-tion, substantially as set forth.

5. A cotton picking device comprising a suction tube, a casing carried thereby, said casing being open at its front end and at the lower side near said front end, thin flexible disks arranged on one of two parallel shafts extending across the lower opening in the casing, non-flexible disks on the .other shaft,

the shafts and disks being positioned so that the peripheral edges of the disks on one shaft have overlapping engagement with the perpheral edges of the disks on the other shaft, means for rotating the disks, and means for creating a suction through the open front end whereby cotton may be drawn between the disks and delivered by means of the suction effect through the tube to a predeten mined point, substantially as set forth.

6. A cotton picking device comprising a casing, a plurality of thin smooth non-flexible disks mounted upon each of aV pair of rotatable shafts in the casing, a plurality'of flexible disks mounted on the shafts alternating with the non-flexible disks and positioned so that the peripheral edge of each of they flexible disks on one shaft will have overlapping engagement with the peripheral edge of a nonflexible disk on the other shaft, means for rotating the shafts tokvdraw cotton kfrom the bells by frictional engagement between the flexible and non-flexible disks, and means for creating a suction through the casing whereby the cotton may be delivered to a predetermined point, substantially as set forth.

7. ln a cotton pic-king device comprising a head and means y. for creating a suction through said head, a pair of rotatable shafts, a plurality of thin relatively inflexible disks mounted upon said shafts, a plurality of relatively flexible disks mounted upon said shafts in spaced relation with respect to the nonfiexible dis rs, the flexible disks on one shaft i bein g positioned so that the peripheral edges have overlapping engagement with the pe-` ripheral edges ofthe non-flexible disks on the other' shaft, substantially as set forth.

n witness whereofl have hereunto set PAUL H. wHrrE. 

